Everything Falls Apart

On that fateful Friday, Dr Azad, in jeans and fatua, had been sitting in the stall of Agami Prokashani at the Ekushey Book Fair. He left the stall at around 8:45 PM; "Dr Azad left the mela, telling me he would go home," says Osman Gani, owner of the publishing house. It was around 9:30, a young man approached him for an autograph; Dr Azad crossed the road for a rickshaw after signing the autograph. And then two unknown assailants, armed with chopping knives hacked the 56-year-old writer on the jaw, lower part of the neck and hands, on the pavement outside the academy.
Conscious but profusely bleeding, Dr Azad, who has authored over 70 books, was taken to the emergency unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH). According to newspaper reports, no doctor was available at the emergency unit of the DMCH. Later, Dr Azad was sent to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH).